


Mind the Gap

by storiesfortravellers



Category: Lie to Me (TV), The Mentalist
Genre: Banter, Competition, M/M, Meeting Your Match, Observation Skills, Pre-Slash, Reading People
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-05
Updated: 2013-03-05
Packaged: 2017-12-04 09:09:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/709035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patrick Jane meets Cal Lightman. An Observation-off ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mind the Gap

**Author's Note:**

> Only warnings are for mentions of canon losses for Jane.
> 
> Written for comment-fic on lj for the prompt: "The Mentalist/Lie To Me, Jane + (or /) Cal, great minds think alike."

The two men looked each other over.

"You're not a police officer," Cal said.

"Obviously. You're not either."

"Just as obviously. I'm consulting on the Kramer case," Cal said.

"Me too," Jane said with a wide smile. "We're really looking forward to working with your team." 

Cal smirked. "No, you're not. Even if it weren't all over your face, locals never like the pinch hitters."

Jane raised an eyebrow. _Compulsive directness? Very interesting,_ he thought. "On the contrary, I'm delighted to see you in action."

Cal looked at him for a moment and then realized with some amusement: "You think you're better at reading people than I am."

Jane gave a shrug, intentionally projecting that his modesty was false.

Cal smiled. "Let's see what you've got."

Jane dramatically stroked his chin and walked around Cal, perusing him. 

Cal rolled his eyes. "Enough with the theatrics," he said.

"But the theatrics are half the fun," Jane told him with a smile. "Okay. I'm ready!" He stood in front of Cal, leaning in just a little bit.

Cal gestured for him to move it along.

Jane said, "You rely on your intelligence and intuition to analyze or manipulate people but you have a very poor track record at using these skills to build positive relationships. I'm guessing... divorced."

"A five year old could tell that." 

"I'm not done! That tie pin is not at all your taste. You're not sentimental enough to wear it for a girlfriend or most relatives. But you know, daughters love to make their fathers be more fashionable." 

Cal looked mildly impressed. "One daughter," he concurred, "Teenager."

"And you expect to be going home tomorrow. Which means your interview with the neighbor went much better than your team led us to believe."

Cal looked puzzled for a moment, then realized: "The bag for the sugar cookie is sticking out of my pocket. You figured it's for my daughter, and it would go stale if I waited two days."

"Very good," Jane said.

"Thank you," Cal said dryly.

"I was talking about myself. You're up."

Cal looked at him. "You think that you're smarter than everyone at the CBI and my team even without meeting them."

"Don't we all?"

Cal continued, "You don't actually care who killed Mr. Kramer."

Jane paused then shrugged.

Cal kept going, "But you do... enjoy putting killers away. Probably from some personal history. Probably... Well, you obviously care about being fashionable. And I can tell by your microreactions to that that you don't, you were just raised to put forth an image, probably had showbiz parents. Ah, another microreaction. I’m mostly right, but it was something a little more disreputable? Circus or carnival upbringing then?”

Jane almost looked surprised. “Okay. That was pretty good. But I just found out something very interesting about you.”

“That I’m better at this than you are?”

“No, though you’re much better than I expected. I expected, quite frankly, for you to be a two-bit con artist.”

“And that offends you because you were and/or are a first rate con artist?” Cal said, not really a question.

“Of course,” Jane said unapologetically. “But I’ve still got one up on you.”

Cal looked skeptical.

Jane smiled. “You held back.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. My voice cracked when I said you had a daughter. You figured out right there that I was sad about a child. And then you figured out that I work with the police because I lost someone, or more than one someone’s. And logically, I probably lost them to a murderer.”

Cal looked at him, expression detached, and Jane noticed the lack of visible pity. There was compassion, yes, but he could see that Cal wasn’t about to share it without cause. For some reason, this made Jane like the man better.

“You usually don’t hold back,” Jane surmised, “And you certainly don’t care about incidentally traumatizing someone. So the fact that you went easy on me – that you risked letting me win – tells me something very enticing about you. About what you think you might someday want from me.” He smiled flirtatiously.

“We have to work together. I used appropriate boundaries,” Cal said casually.

“Oh come now, you can do better than that. You obviously don't care about boundaries. By the way, talking about it doesn’t bother me. I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen all about my plans to kill the man who did it.”

“I see.”

Jane let out a breath. “Wow. There was actually no judgment there.”

“It’s not a good idea,” Cal said. He wasn’t about to encourage a revenge killing. 

“You know that ethically and logically,” Jane observed, “But emotionally, you know you would do the same if it happened to you.”

Jane contemplated this for a moment.

Cal put a hand on his own hip. “And you pretend not to care what people think but you’re desperate for someone to validate your mission, to tell you that what you’re doing is right.” It was back to this, to the challenge, to matching Jane blow for blow. 

Jane replied, “And you feel desperately lonely when you’re around someone who’s not your intellectual equal. Like nobody can possibly understand what it’s like to be smug, smart you…. And now you’re thinking something about a pot and a kettle.”

Cal smiled, “I was hardly trying to hide that one, was I?”

“We’re going to have so much fun working together,” Jane grinned. “We’ll have such an open and honest relationship.”

“Don’t call this a relationship,” Cal muttered as he headed for the elevators.

Jane walked closely by his side. “Oh, my friend, it’s far too late to shut that particular gate. Really. Look at my face: am I lying?”


End file.
